Route 7 Review - Page 163

list him as “native informant” about “his people”
and his “undiscovered” neighborhood. Mary complains, ‘I’ve been to England, France, Mexico, but
I don’t know how people live ten blocks from me.
. . They must live like we live. . .They live in our
country. . . In the same city with us’ (Native Son,
69-70). She curiously doesn’t ask Bigger about his
lifestyle, perhaps because as “native informant”
his account is already tainted by the knowledge
she presumes him to have about her world. . .
There is an insistent possession in the phrase “our
country,” belying her ironic magnanimity, as if the
blacks were extended and not particularly gracious houseguests”. . . (614).
Note that she does not even ask Bigger’s
permission or how he feels about doing this
before demanding that he take them with him to
eat in his neighborhood. Mary’s and Jan’s wanting
to see how Bigger lives is not out of true curiosity
nor concern for him by connecting with his part
of humanity. Both of them are imperialistically
forcing their beliefs onto Bigger. They only ask
Bigger questions as implications of their own
ideas. When first meeting Bigger, Mary asks him,
“’Bigger, do you belong to a union. . . But you
wouldn’t mind belonging to a union, would you. .
. All right, Mr. Capitalist! (referring to her father, Mr. Dalton). . . Isn’t he a capitalist, Bigger?’
Bigger looked at the floor and did not answer. He
did not know what a capitalist was” (Native Son
58-9). It does not matter that they do this out of
idealist naiveté.
In this way, Mary’s extreme good is no
better than Bigger’s extreme evil. Bigger’s murder
of Mary is the turning point for the hero. His
murder of Mary is not an accident at all. This is
where the hero begins to live on his own terms
and establish his own identity, purpose and goals.
By trying to put words in his mouth, Mary shows
that she is inconsiderate of any possible stances or
attitudes that he may have. She thinks she knows
him and does not. Furthermore, she never tries to
come to truly know him. Like all the other characters in the text, she does not see Bigger for who
he is—a man.
Native Son follows one of the common
themes of African-American literature--damned
if you do, damned if you don’t. His heroism is
like that of Youssarian in Joseph Heller’s Catch
22. In this type, one avoids the ready made forms
of damnation by society and the system while
creating and following his or her own. “His mother, with her tired resignation to Jim Crow laws,
longing for middle-class domesticity, and pleas
for Christian mercy, represents the suffering black
subject begging for recognition of black humanity”